


Somniloquy

by goddessofcheese



Category: Destiny (Video Game)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-28
Updated: 2017-10-28
Packaged: 2019-01-25 17:19:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12537104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goddessofcheese/pseuds/goddessofcheese
Summary: Nights since the City's fall have been long and cold, but Zavala isn't spending his alone. In a sense.





	Somniloquy

Exos could snore.

This was not something Zavala had been even remotely aware of. He had seen the rise and fall of Earth’s last city, had seen Guardians come and go, and had seen more battlefields than most people would in their entire lives. But here he was, close to one in the morning, completely stunned at the soft rattles and wheezes coming from Cayde-6’s open metal mouth.

Cayde, for his part, was curled up in a ball so tight his body was almost a total circle. He didn’t have most of his usual armor on, going for a simple shirt and pants. For decency’s sake, he’d said with a wink that had made Zavala groan at the time. Now he wondered if this was normal behavior for the man or of this was somehow a Hunter thing to save space while out in the wilderness.

Or maybe it was just a reaction from the fact that there were three Guardians to a bed meant for one, maybe two people at most.

The Farm even at its prime was small and not made for many people to live on. Now there were dozens of refugees camped out around it in makeshift shelters, a large team of volunteers and Guardians making due with they could find in the barn, and a handful of people in the farmhouse itself, scattered on various couches, sleeping bags, and hammocks. Hawthorne had taken over the attic, claiming dibs as the first squatter to live in the house. She claimed she needed the space because, “Does anyone else really want to live with the bird smell and feathers? Sorry, Louis, you know it’s true.” That had left one bedroom to spare with one full-size bed in the center. Zavala had held back his discomfort at the time, reminding himself he was lucky to have a bed to sleep on at all. He could deal with cramped quarters.

Though that was before his companion’s wheezing and hooting had disturbed his slumber.

Cayde snorted, sending a small tremor through his cyan body, but didn’t seem to wake. Zavala sighed and turned his attention to the ragged hole in the ceiling, trying to find a familiar body of stars to pass the time. The moon was full, casting its light down into the room. Despite his exhaustion, it gave him a bit of comfort. He had done this before, a long time ago… when his Ghost had first found him in the wreckage of whatever doomed starship he’d been on. In their long trek to the place that the little being said he belonged to, they had spent many a night out in the open air, looking up at the stars above. He hadn’t known the names of them, but the Ghost did somehow. Maybe because the Traveler had once traveled peacefully between them–

“…Zavala…”

He turned to his left. Ikora was facing him, laying on her side, but her eyes were closed. Odd. Had he imagined her speaking? But no, her face scrunched up into a frown and she called his name again. Softly. Sadly.

“I’m here,” he replied in a whisper, though why he wasn’t sure. She was clearly talking in her sleep. But something in her voice sounded like she needed to be heard. And sure enough, her hands padded around on the bed until they found his bare, shimmering shoulder and she shifted to move closer to him until her chin rested on his shoulder and her body leaned against his. _Her touch is cold_ , he thought to himself. Everything had, since the Light had...

He pulled the quilt higher up to her neck and she relaxed into the creaky mattress. He began to look away, to close his eyes to try and go back to sleep, when he heard her murmur again.

“I’m sorry…”

The silence was long and still, broken only by the sound of the equipment on the roof creaking and the wind coming through the hole in the ceiling. The moon disappeared, hidden behind a cloud. Zavala was left once more in the dark.

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” he whispered back after a time. Delicately, he rested his own hand on hers. Her fingers spread out, long and thin, before tangling themselves up into his. Her grip was strong even when dreaming. He smiled a little but it fell as he continued. “I’m the one who is sorry. I thought… I thought the walls would be enough. That _we_ would be enough.” A pause. “That I was enough. But I failed you. And the city. I’m the one who should be saying I’m sorry.”

If Ikora had heard any of it, consciously or not, she didn’t respond. She seemed to have finally drifted away again. He was content with that. She deserved the rest. He left his hand in hers, the contact warm and pleasant. It made him realize that he’d never been this close to Ikora. In all the years that they’d worked together, he’d only ever been maybe arm’s length from the woman that he considered part of his personal fireteam. It was not that he didn’t trust her, far from it. But it did seem strange to him now that they had never stood so near to each other.

His thoughts were interrupted by a yawn and an impact to his left as Cayde turned over and curled up into his side. For a man made of metals and plastics, he was surprisingly light. The yellow glow of his mouth and other exposed parts of his upper body illuminated the bedroom, his snores still a constant rhythm. Zavala sighed and used his free hand to pull the quilt closer up onto him as well but froze the second he heard Cayde speak, his words interrupted by his breathing.

“Hey… you ain’t got… nothing to… be sorry for… big guy…”

Zavala froze and stared at him. “Cayde?”

Silence. Cayde’s eyes were squeezed shut and once his words were gone, his snores resumed. Zavala waited for at least a minute to see if he would give up the act and reveal with a witty comment that he’d listened in on the entire thing, ho ho ho got you again. But... no response. The Titan sighed and let his arm rest around Cayde’s shoulders. He too was chill to the touch, perhaps not in the same organic way that Ikora was, but still. This was the closest he’d ever been next to Cayde as well. Perhaps once he wouldn't have been ok with that. He and Cayde didn’t always… see eye to eye. To put it lightly.

But now he considered the fact that Cayde should, by all rights, be dead. Not just as a temporary discomfort, but as a finality. So many good Guardians had perished in the attack and Cayde had been right there on the front lines with him. Before he had turned up again in some odd Vex mishap, Zavala had thought that maybe he was. He considered his life without the Hunter. Without Ikora. What would the world be like without them, had they been lost? Not just for the City but for  _him_? 

His mind went still and quiet for longer than he wanted to consider. Until something up above caught his eye.

The cloud had moved away.

The moon was visible again. Full and wondrous, it shined with a renewed light.

Zavala squeezed Ikora’s hand. Smoothed his palm along Cayde’s back. And reminded himself before he drifted off to sleep that darkness could not last forever.

**Author's Note:**

> update: 7/5/18 -- removed some typos and added a bit towards the end


End file.
